Former Financial Times editor Andrew Gowers has poured scorn on newspapers, claiming they will become as obsolete in the future as vinyl records.

Mr Gowers, who left the newspaper last week following a dispute with the Pearson chief executive, Dame Marjorie Scardino, used a column in the London Evening Standard to savage newspaper groups in denial about the power of the internet.

"Working in print, pure and simple, is the early 21st century equivalent of running a record company specialising in vinyl," Mr Gowers said.

"The future lies with the internet, and those newspapers that survive will be those that produce truly original content and learn fastest how to translate it into the all-encompassing, all-singing, all-dancing new medium of the web."

Mr Gowers, who was editor of the Financial Times for four years, refused to explain what "strategic differences" led to his departure from Pearson. He also ruled out a return to newspapers.

"I am focused on what comes next. And I have already all but decided that, whatever it is, it will not involve ink printed on dead trees.

"It is of course, quite unlikely that anyone would be foolish enough to ask me to edit a newspaper again. But if they did, the answer would be no.

Mr Gowers went on to accuse "at least half of what used to be called Fleet St" being in denial about the impact of the internet.

He also attacked the News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch's conversion to the internet, saying he "still chucks good money after bad on spanking new all colour presses and DVD circulation gains for the Times".